Update on Waste Solutions Service and Depot Rationalisation
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Environment and Transportation ☒approval ☐noting Ref AM/RS Date 28/08/19 Update on Waste Solutions Service and Depot Rationalisation From Head of Regulatory Services and Waste Solutions Email [email protected] Telephone 01236 638575 Executive Summary The report provides an update on the depot rationalisation exercise taking place across Waste, Fleet and Land Services. In addition it also provides detailed information on the ongoing transformation of the Waste Solutions service. Recommendations It is recommended that the Environment and Transportation Committee: 1. Notes the steps being taken to rationalise the depot facilities across the Council and notes the availability of funding through the Community Investment Fund to support the project. 2. Approves the introduction of an annual £30 charge for Duty of Care documentation. 3. Notes the current recycling performance of the Council, the current and future factors which are influencing this and approves the actions being taken/ to be taken to increase the overall recycling levels. 4. Notes the further report to Committee that will be delivered in 2020 outlining the progress with further partnership working with other local authorities and the development of the Auchinlea facility. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve North Lanarkshire's resource base Ambition statement (22) Facilitate a North Lanarkshire wide approach to asset rationalisation, including with communities and partners 1. Background 1.1 The Fleet, Waste and Land Services divisions currently occupy 10 separate depot facilities throughout the North Lanarkshire area. Following a review of these facilities and the service delivery model, it was determined that a better service could be achieved through the rationalisation of the depots and at the same time deliver an overall financial saving to the Council. 1.2 In tandem with the review of its operational locations, the Waste service continues to not only undergo transformational change to ensure that it moves towards a more efficient delivery model, but also that it puts in place plans which will address the significant cost pressure on the service and also mitigate against the significant uncertainty that affect the waste industry as a whole. 2. Report 2.1 Depot Rationalisation 2.1.1 Table 1 below identifies the current and proposed depot facilities that are to be included within the overall rationalisation exercise and will allow an overall reduction in the number of depots from 10 to 4: Service Current Depot Facilities Proposed Depot Facilities Fleet Bellshill, Old Edinburgh Road Bellshill, Old Edinburgh Road Waste Bellshill, Old Edinburgh Road Bellshill, Old Edinburgh Road Souterhouse, Coatbridge Move from facility Albert Street, Motherwell Move from facility Land Bellshill, Old Edinburgh Road Move from facility Lady Anne Depot, Airdrie Close Souterhouse, Coatbridge Souterhouse, Coatbridge Coshneuk, Stepps Close Garrel Road, Kilsyth Close Wardpark, Cumbernauld Wardpark, Cumbernauld Viewpark, New Edinburgh Rd Close Bonkle, 275 Bonkle Rd, Newmains Close Netherton, Wishaw Close Albert Street, Motherwell 2.1.2 The Fleet depot is located at Old Edinburgh Road, Bellshill with the two waste depots located at Albert Street, Motherwell and Souterhouse, Coatbridge with an administration support function based at Bellshill. The presence of the waste depots at their current location relates back to the infrastructure that existed from the previous Monklands and Motherwell District Councils, with a third depot located at Wardpark, Cumbernauld previously being merged into the Souterhouse depot. 2.1.3 The combination of all three remaining depots into one has a number of financial and operational benefits. The overall footprint and office accommodation that currently sits in all three areas could easily be accommodated within the Bellshill depot and the location of the entire Waste service within the Bellshill depot will also remove the operational and management issues that exist when you have three separate locations. This in turn will lead to further efficiencies in the delivery of the service and a review of the management provision necessary for the service. Further to this, the Waste service represents the key customer for the Fleet service and by having all vehicles located within the same depot this will reduce the amount of “down time” associated with the vehicles. There is also the potential to amalgamate all of the stores provisions currently located across all three locations into a single unit and consolidate and review the staffing establishment dedicated to maintaining this. 2.1.4 Land Management currently operate a support/ asset management team from the Bellshill Depot. The team will be relocated to Fleming House, Cumbernauld to allow the function to be aligned better with the current roads support/ technical services/ asset management functions. This will result in closer working and a range of skills being available across the wider Environmental Assets service. 2.1.5 The frontline operations for Land Management are currently delivered across three geographical areas and from eight depots as detailed above. The depot rationalisation exercise would see resources consolidated into one depot per operational area leading to better flexibility and enable improvements to current service provision. 2.1.6 The longer term intention is to consolidate all Land Management (and potentially Waste and Fleet resources) into a single modern facility. Although this is currently at an early stage, this will lead to further efficiencies in the delivery of the service and a review of the management provision necessary for the service as well as fleet and plant requirements. 2.1.7 The first rationalisation exercise will involve the location of all Waste services to the Bellshill Depot at Old Edinburgh Road, Bellshill. This move is likely to take place early February 2020 and this in turn will facilitate the closure and relocation of all Land Management employees by the summer of 2020. 2.1.8 The overall capital costs associated with the above rationalisation has been estimated at £1.417M but this cost also includes costs of around £417K which would be required as part of the normal asset lifecycle maintenance associated with depots that are to be retained. In delivering this it is also expected that there will be an overall annual revenue saving of £250K and potential capital receipt to the Council of around £3M. 2.1.9 As with all significant workplace changes, the proposals will be fully discussed with all Unions and arrangements introduced to reduce the impact of any change to an individual’s working location. 2.1.10 It should also be noted that Police Scotland have also been included within the changes to the Bellshill depot. They are currently undergoing an asset review exercise within their own organisation and areas within the Bellshill depot have been identified for potential use by Police Scotland if they wish to consider locating to Bellshill as part of their own review. It should be noted however that the areas allocated to Police Scotland will not impact upon the Council’s own rationalisation exercise. 2.2 Waste and Fleet Service Restructure 2.2.1 In line with the above changes to the depot locations, there has also been a restructure within the Waste and Fleet service. This has resulted in the combination of the two services under a single manager and changes to the overall management structure. This restructure has delivered a small financial saving but more importantly will lead to further operational efficiencies and will allow more focus on the performance and compliance aspects of the two service areas. 2.3 Service Change 2.3.1 Duty of Care Certificates – there is a legal obligation on any premises which produces waste to have appropriate Duty of Care documentation which proves that their waste is being removed by a licensed contractor and disposed of at an appropriately licensed facility. At present the Waste Service provides this certificate free of charge to all customers. This is not in keeping with similar services provided by the private sector where a charge is made for the certificate. It is proposed therefore that the Service will now charge an annual fee of £30 for this document. This will affect around 1500 customers, but the 200 charities also receiving a service will be provided with the documentation free of charge. This charge will become effective from 1st April 2020. 2.3.2 Review of Assisted Pull Outs – as previously reported to Committee, the number of “assisted pull outs” provided by the Council (circa 12,500) is significantly above the national average. Although the provision of this service is essential for certain residents, it also has a significant impact on the efficiency of the routes; so whilst it is important to retain the service for those who require it, it is also important that those not entitled are removed. It was agreed at Committee on 13 February 2019 that there would be an overall review of those currently listed as part of the pull out service. The first part of this exercise has now been completed. Through feedback from the front line crews, 3955 addresses were identified as those whose bins were being presented to kerbside without assistance on a repeated basis. These addresses were contacted by letter and of this total, 564 contacted the Council to request that they continue with the service with the remaining 3,391removed from the scheme. We will continue to monitor those addresses that were removed from the scheme to determine what numbers have subsequently contacted the Council to be reinstated onto the scheme. The second stage of the exercise will now use the same front line crew feedback to assess which properties should definitely be retained as a “pull out” i.e. those addresses that are known to the crews as clearly requiring assistance. Thereafter this will leave the remaining addresses where we are uncertain whether a pull out is required.